2002 Wimbledon
Date: 2002-07-03
Krajicek def. Philippoussis 6-7, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4

Question Was that the toughest circumstances in a match you've ever played?
Answer I wouldn't say it's the toughest circumstances, but it's just -- you know, obviously it's tough for both of us. You know, you got to expect that here at Wimbledon. It's tough. You've got to get on when you can get on. I mean, it was fine at the end. It was definitely a lot lighter the second time we came out than the first time. The first time was pretty dark. But, yeah, what can you do?

Question Great regret going away that first game of the final set? If you'd like to change something, would that be the one thing you'd like to do?
Answer I mean, I double-faulted once. Besides that double-fault, I did nothing wrong. I left the ball, which I thought was out. He hit a forehand winner. He hit two backhand winners. You know, what can you do? What can you do? Nothing you can do about that.

Question Do you think if the match was played over one day, it would have been a different result?
Answer Hard to tell. I'd never think about it like that. I mean, I would never think about that. If I would look back on anything in the match, I would look back at me serving for the second set.

Question How long ago does that feel like right now?
Answer Like I said, you know, this is Wimbledon, and there are delays. We expect this. Anyway, it was a tough match out there.

Question What did you do during the delays?
Answer Nothing much you can do. You know, just relax. You've got to see when you can get on, get on the practice court, try and have something to eat. Just, you know, you're warming up, get ready to go back out, then it rains, so you have to cool down again, then you warm up. You know, you've got to do whatever you can to get yourself prepared for the match.

Question Is this loss tougher knowing that your half of the draw was more open than it may be in other years to come or may have been in the past?
Answer Not at all.

Question Feel like a missed opportunity?
Answer I'm 25 years old. I want to come back stronger. I'm going to become a better tennis player. When I go home, I'm going to train hard and get ready for the summer. I have plenty of years ahead of me.

Question Has this given you more encouragement in that regard? Have you shown that you can get back to where you were?
Answer I mean, I know I can. I know I can. You know, the difference is I'm going out there and I'm playing tougher tennis. You know, I've lost -- in the last few weeks, I've lost some tough matches. One or two points, that's all it's taken. You know, sooner or later things will start going my way. So I've just got to hang in there, train hard, keep committing myself on the court, keep fighting, and it will turn around for me - I know it will.

Question You spoke recently about fighting for every point and concentration. Were you happy with those aspects of your game?
Answer I came out and I fought as hard as I could. Like I said, one regret, the double-fault, you want to make him at least play a breakpoint. But what can you do? I came out after that and fought. I had Love-30 a couple times. He came up with some big serves. You know, it was his day. He deserved the match.

Question Did you have any say in when you guys could play today? Did they ask you whether you wanted to go on earlier?
Answer No. I mean, in this weather, I mean, what can you do? You've just got to hold on and just wait. You know, obviously we knew that under any circumstances they wanted to get our set out of the way. So, yeah, we knew we'd be hanging here all day if it took that to get on.

Question They were saying on television that Richard wanted to go on first before the women's quarterfinal, but you wanted a longer break. Was that right?
Answer Yeah, I didn't want to go out first. You know, if I knew it was going to rain -- if I knew the weather was going to be the way it was, I would have also wanted to go on first. But you never know. I mean, I wanted a bit of a rest.

Question Where do you go from here? What is your plan after you had your break?
Answer I play some Team Tennis, go to Canadian Open, Cincinnati, just get ready for the US Open.

Question Have you thought at all about Davis Cup against India?
Answer No. When is that?

Question September.
Answer I have a few other things to think about before that.

Question Are you going surfing? Is that the plan now in terms of getting away from the game?
Answer Yeah. I planned to go to Costa Rica for the week, but I'm not sure now. I'll see.

Question You see Krajicek now as one of the big favorites for the title?
Answer Definitely, the way he played. The way he played in my match, I think he can do some damage. He's definitely the favorite. You know, it's going to be a different game for him to play Malisse. So, you know, Malisse won't be serve-volleying. You know, he hits the ball well off the ground, very flashy, very talented. It will be a different match for him. Who knows how he comes up from today and yesterday for tomorrow's match.

Question He was 20 months out. Does he look like the Krajicek he was before to you?
Answer I mean, I must say, I thought he played pretty good. I mean, seeing the way he played, I wouldn't have imagined, you know, he was injured or this is one of his few times back. I'm sure he's feeling good.

Question Do you think he's the favorite ahead of Lleyton?
Answer It's tough. You can't call. I mean, Lleyton has to play against Schalken. He's not an easy opponent, even though he did beat him at Queen's. And then maybe Tim. So, you know, as you can see, after two weeks of tennis, you can't call any match. Anything can happen on any given day.

Question When play was called in the third game of the last set, at that point are you thinking, "We're going to have to come back again tomorrow"? How confident were you that they would get you back out on the court?
Answer You know, you always want to think that you're playing today, at least get yourself mentally prepared. So I knew, no matter what happened, they're going to wait as long as they could, you know, to get us on. I definitely knew that I had a 70% chance we were going on today.

Question Overall, is this one of your most disappointing losses in the past year or two? How would you rank it?
Answer I mean, I'm disappointed, yeah. But, you know, I want to keep my head up high. I'm going to go home, take a few days off, and train hard. I can't -- I'm not going to, you know, think about this at all. As soon as I'm out of this center, I'm going to forget about it. I came here, I gave my best. You know, next time. What can you do? Like I said, I'm 25 years old. I've got another seven -- who knows, six or seven years ahead of me. I have no doubt in my mind that I'm going to win this tournament in that time at least once.

Question In terms of deserving to win the match, you said he deserved to win. If you look at the points, you had 52% of the points. Maybe you should have deserved to win.
Answer Like I said, it always comes down to the big points. In a match with four tiebreakers, you know, there's plenty of matches like that. I'd love to win the match, even if I win 30% of the points. I'd still love to win. Doesn't matter what you do, as long as you win. Won't make me feel any better winning 52% of the points out there.

Question If I look at the stats, the difference is just one breakpoint, it's really like that.
Answer Well, I mean, the whole match was like that. I was serving for the second set. 15-40 at 5-All in the fourth set. I'm going to have plenty of matches like that in the future. But as long as I try and learn and keep fighting... Like I said, next time it's going to go my way.

Question You seem to have these kind of matches with Dutch guys. I remember the match against Schalken a couple years ago.
Answer Yeah, you know, they're tough players. Obviously Sjeng is a tough player, too. Every time I go out there, I know it's not going to be an easy match. You've got to fight. Men's tennis has such great depth, as you can see at this tournament, with so many seeds going out. There's no easy matches. You've got to be prepared to fight, you know, all the way when you get out there.